Border Wall Threatens National Wildlife Refuge That's Been 40 Years In The Making
"Over the past 41 years, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has been buying up land
on the lower Texas-Mexico border to protect one of the most biologically diverse regions in North America from developers and farmers."
"But the Rio Grande Valley of Texas is a hotspot for illegal immigration and drug smuggling, as well as biodiversity. That's why the Trump administration is planning to build 110 miles of border wall through the valley (which is actually a river delta)."
"Pieces of that wall will go directly through the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge because it is land already owned by the federal government. Elsewhere on the Texas border, construction of the president's wall is being slowed by difficulties acquiring private land. It can take months or years to take private property through eminent domain."
"It's a tragic situation," said Caroline Brouwer, vice president for government affairs at the National Wildlife Refuge Association, a Washington-based nonprofit that advocates for the nation's often overlooked refuge system. "Fish and Wildlife staff have worked on this issue for decades and decades. And it's being torn down in front of our eyes."